#You can't take it with you

[lizztaylor]

James Stewart as Tony Kirby in You Can’t Take It with You (1938)

[365filmsbyauroranocte]

My Top 25 First Time Watches of 2024!

1. Love Streams (John Cassavetes, 1984) 2. Série noire (Alain Corneau, 1979) 3. Christine (Alan Clarke, 1987) 4. La morte vivante (Jean Rollin, 1982) 5. The Long Goodbye (Robert Altman, 1973) 6. Les Nuits de la pleine lune (Éric Rohmer, 1984) 7. Quatre nuits d'un rêveur (Robert Bresson, 1971) 8. La prima notte di quiete (Valerio Zurlini, 1972) 9. Céline (Jean-Claude Brisseau, 1992) 10. Angel Dust (Sogo Ishii, 1994) 11. Duelle (Jacques Rivette, 1976) 12. Les chambres rouges (Pascal Plante, 2023) 13. You Can’t Take It with You (Frank Capra, 1938) 14. Smooth Talk (Joyce Chopra, 1985) 15. Lemora: A Child’s Tale of the Supernatural (Richard Blackburn, 1973) 16. The ’Burbs (Joe Dante, 1989) 17. Daisy Kenyon (Otto Preminger, 1947) 18. Road (Alan Clarke, 1987) 19. Drylongso (Cauleen Smith, 1998) 20. Once Upon a Time in the West (Sergio Leone, 1968) 21. Little Odessa (James Gray, 1994) 22. The Company of Strangers (Cynthia Scott, 1990) 23. The Black Tower (John Smith, 1987) 24. Ocaña (Ventura Pons, 1978) 25. Valerie and Her Week of Wonders (Jaromil Jireš, 1970)

(My list in Letterboxd -click here-)

Happy New Year!

[back-in-2037]

1938:

2007:

I recently found a post by @dreadfulgentleman about how A Day with Wilbur Robinson, the book Meet the Robinsons is based on, was inspired by the play You Can't Take it With You by George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart. The play was adapted into a movie in 1938 by director Frank Capra. The black and white screenshots shown above are taken from one of the scenes of said movie adaptation.

To summarize, You Can't Take it With You follows the Vanderhof household, a group that consist of both people related by blood as well as others not biologically related to anyone in the family but that are still considered part of it and are loved and accepted as such. They all have quirky interests (there's a toy maker, people making fireworks in the basement, a lady who dances while she bakes pastries she calls 'Love Dreams', etc.) and they all live by the philosophy that you should spend your days doing the things you love most with the people you love most, because what else should you do with your life? You can't take anything in it with you when you are gone, so you might as well make the best of your time while you can.

And so every member of the family encourages each other to pursue their interests freely, no matter how odd they might be or if they end up causing their fair share of accidents and troubles. They stick with one another through thick and thin.

Sounds familiar?

I think its fascinating how one piece of art can inspire someone to create something else, which in turn inspires someone else to create their own art and so on and so forth. Not only in matters of style or aesthetics, but also in the themes and lessons these stories leave us with.

I think it is fascinating how some of these themes found You Can't Take it With You managed to find their way to newer generations through this other work of fiction it partially inspired. Because while I don't think most of my generation has seen You Can't Take it With You, many of us grew up with Meet the Robinsons and became familiar with the Robinson philosophy. That one motto in particular.

And I think that the way in which we can draw this line; in which we can look at the different branches in this family tree of inspiration, showing us how a work of art inspires another one that can carry its themes and lessons for other people to learn from across time, while also creating something new and unique, is something truly beautiful.

Specially for those who seek to create something themselves. Just knowing that the artists one looks up to were also inspired by someone else's art to make their own, can be encouraging, since maybe one day they can create something that will become another branch in that tree. Something that could inspire somebody else in the future, not only to create their own art, but to find the courage to simply live their lives.

To Keep Moving Forward.

[fairlycaught]

You Can't Take It with You (1938) dir. Frank Capra

[thursdaymurderbub]

Silver Screen magazine, April 1939

[arabella-strange]

CADUCEUS

[howifeltabouthim]

'Your grandmother brought you to the Plaza?' he said. 'It's her dime. She keeps saying she can't take it with her. You think she doesn't know how inheritance works?'

Chris Whitaker, from All the Colors of the Dark

[digitalfossils]

[newwwwusername]

Acid Reflux/GERD Fic Requests Open

My reflux has been getting worse despite medications so if anyone has any fic requests related to that, I need somewhere to work this out lol

My fic rules can be found here

The following is a list of fandoms I'd especially be curious to write for

Cabaret (Stage Musical)

Monster High (Live Action Movies)

The Amazing Spider-Man (Andrew Garfield Movies)

The Owl House

Arcane : League of Legends

Helluva Boss

The Play That Goes Wrong

School Bus Graveyard (Webtoon)

The Road Within

Tales from the Gas Station

Goosebumps (Disney+)

Death Note : The Musical

Spicy Mints (Webtoon)

Spider-Man : The New Animated Series (2003 Cartoon)

You Can't Take It With You (Stageplay)

Newsies : The Broadway Musical! (2017 Proshot)

[gladysgeorgiannagreene]

Jimmy Stewart and Jean Arthur in "You Can't Take It With You" 1938

[mellpenscorner]

RIP Frank Capra. You would have loved Go Fund Me.

[kwebtv]

The Cast of "You Can't Take it With You"

[thebestestwinner]

The top two vote-getters will move on to the next round!

[oscarupsets]

This one was definitely a contentious match-up for me. Rom-com You Can't Take It with You won over the war drama La Grande Illusion, the first foreign language film to be nominated for Best Picture.

You Can't Take It with You was based off of a 1936 play of the same name. During the film's release in 1938, the play was STILL running on Broadway. It was an instant box office success. The Radio City Music Hall had to increase to 5 screenings a day to handle the demand.

It was clearly a play adaptation, and it was wonderful. I have a soft side for screwball comedies, and this one was definitely a riot. There are also way too many characters, but not in a bad way.

La Grande Illusion is listed as a war drama, but definitely has some light-hearted comedy to it. I struggled to find a solid review from its US release, but many considered it the best French film to date.

Honestly, there was something different about La Grande Illusion. I'm not sure if I'm just getting desensitized to 1930s films, but this one felt significantly more sophisticated. And I couldn't even tell you exactly why (and it was not just the fact that it was in French). There were nuances that did not need to be described. The film style was simple but effective. It's aggressively political in nature without being overbearing. All around a great film. Great job, France.

As for the Academy Awards, we may have ditched the categories of Dance Direction and Assistant Director, but we've still got the weirdly similar Original Story and Screenplay, AND we've added a new confusing duo: Original Score and Scoring!

There were also some brief changes to the voting system prior to the 11th Academy Awards, but each source seemed to just confuse me more on that.

Current reception for both films is solid. Some argue that You Can't Take It with You is one of Frank Capra's weaker films, but still praise the comedy and the casting. Critics consider La Grande Illusion to be a successful anti-war film on par with All Quiet on the Western Front (and even more so because both were banned in Germany for some time.)

Unofficial Review: Watch both!

[jackbeauregards]

That scene in You Can't Take It With You where Jimmy dances the Big Apple with the kids is just so cute.

[some-pers0n]

How it feels getting obsessed with something new and then realizing you're going to spend anywhere from a week to the rest of your life thinking about it